Student Charged With Bringing Weapons on Campus

LUCAMA, N.C. — A Wilson County student was arrested Wednesday after school officials discovered that he had brought a gun, ammunition and a knife to school.

The boy, whose name and age were not released, is a student at Springfield Middle School.

At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Assistant Principal Wil Farmer notified Principal Ron Barringer that a student had reported a gun on campus, according to the account school officials gave Thursday. The student told a school resource officer that another student had put a gun in the reporting student's locker.

Barringer asked teachers to keep all students in classrooms. He did not initiate a lock-down.

When the halls were clear, Barringer used a master key and opened the locker in question. After moving some papers, he discovered the gun, school officials said. The weapon was not loaded, but a clip containing six rounds was on top of the gun.

The principal called the student under suspicion to the office.

Barringer, the school resource officer and the assistant principal reviewed video from the school system's surveillance cameras. The video showed the student under suspicion making the motion of putting an object in the other student's locker, school officials said.

It was not clear in the video that the object was a gun.

The student said he had brought the gun to school because he heard that a group of older boys was going to "get him,” school officials said.

During a pat down, the school resource officer also found a knife. The officer then took the student, the firearm, the knife and the ammunition clip to the Wilson County Sheriff's Office. Barringer notified the student's father.